This small nondescript building, where the sound of whirring engines can barely be heard just feet away from the plant, enough electricity is produced to light more than 40,000 homes. The natural-gas-fired operation, which came online in 2006 ...The plant can go from a dead stop to fully operational in nine minutes, providing the perfect complement to the wind power coming from Judith Gap in Central Montana. "Wind obviously doesn't blow evenly all day long," Markovich said. "This helps us fill in the gaps."

As huge power line projects in Montana are being pitched as the catalyst for a new wave of wind power development, Public Service Commissioner Brad Molnar, R-Laurel, is asking whether these lines might end up harming Montana electricity consumers. Molnar has been traveling the state and writing newspaper columns, arguing that the lines could lead to higher rates for Montanans.

Some Montana farmers still are worried about how the Montana Alberta Tie Line will affect farming operations and say they want impacts minimized before they sign final agreements with developer Tonbridge Power Co. "We want it done as farming friendly as possible, and we've had to really work on this," said Lee Otness, who farms near Brady.

A biting wind whipped across the snow-covered Montana prairie as Clayton Larsen and John Mattheis took soil samples from 30 feet below the surface north of Conrad late last week. The men, who work for SK Geotechnical in Billings, are helping to build the $215 million, 230-kilovolt Montana Alberta Tie Line - a transmission line that could be the key to the future of wind development in the region.

Montana's Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC) says it has received a request from Sansur Renewable Energy asking that 7,256 acres of state-owned land be opened for possible development of a 100 megawatt wind farm. In response, DNRC on Wednesday issued a request for proposals to open the acreage to competitive bids.

Whitehall Wind, which is controlled by Gamesa, proposed a 50-megawatt wind farm in Jefferson County in the early 2000s, and sought to sell power to NorthWestern under a federal law that says utilities must buy power from small, independent generators of "renewable" power. The law says if the utility and the power-project developer can't agree to a contract, the Public Service Commission must set rates and conditions for a contract.

Great Falls' municipal utility arm, Electric City Power, faces a $23,260 fine from the state Public Service Commission for failing to obtain renewable energy credits in 2008. In a unanimous vote at a work session last Tuesday, the PSC voted 5-0 to fine Electric City Power, rejecting city requests for leniency.

Minneapolis-based National Wind LLC on Monday announced the formation of Judith Highlands Energy LLC, and plans to develop more than 500 megawatts of community-owned wind projects in four central-Montana counties. The project's first phase incorporates more than 50,000 acres in Judith Basin, Wheatland, Golden Valley and Fergus counties.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission announced Thursday that it has approved a $161 million loan to the company building the Montana Alberta Tie Line between Great Falls and Lethbridge. The Western Area Power Administration will loan Toronto-based Tonbridge Power Inc. - the project's developer - money with funds from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009, also known as the federal stimulus bill.

Canadian and Irish companies announced plans Friday to build a 100-mile-long power line in Montana that could prompt construction of wind farms in the Great Falls area by giving developers access to large out-of-state markets hungry for renewable energy. ...Construction of the transmission line would spur the construction of wind projects near it, Jamison said. Gaelectric is studying wind farm construction at several sites across the state, including near Fort Benton and Havre.

A Canadian transmission company and an Irish wind developer said Friday they are teaming up to pursue a central Montana power project that could result in at least $1 billion worth of new wind energy in the Great Falls area. If the project succeeds, it would give Montana's burgeoning wind energy industry room to grow - an expansion that to date has been limited by a lack of lines to move power out of the state.

The developer of a $213 million transmission line being eagerly awaited by wind developers said construction is set to begin following the decision Thursday by the Supreme Court of Canada to refuse to hear an appeal of the project's permit. With the court's decision, all avenues for legal challenges have been exhausted and Montana Alberta Tie Ltd. will now be able to begin construction on both sides of the border by December.

A Canadian company is seeking wind power developers to move electricity along a pair of $3 billion transmission lines in Montana and Wyoming -- potentially spurring a major increase in renewable power exported from the Rockies to the Southwest. The two lines would move 3,000 megawatts of power from each state. That's more than three times as much wind power as Wyoming currently produces and eight times what Montana has.

Blade repairs are tricky, Moya said, because the weight and thickness of the repair materials have to be perfectly matched to the blade. Otherwise, a blade ends up lighter or heavier than the others on the windmill, causing the entire apparatus to wobble like an unbalanced tire and ultimately fall apart. "We send images of the damage to our engineers in Houston. They send detailed blueprints back about what needs to be replaced," Moya said.

Lightning knocked out two wind turbines and sent a massive tower blade crashing to the ground at the Judith Gap Wind Farm last month, the company said Wednesday. Repairs began earlier this month and will continue into September, said Susan Dennison, an Invenergy spokeswoman.

As a safety precaution, residential wind towers would be banned within 1,000 feet of schools under new zoning rules proposed in Cascade County. ...Different setback rules - the height of a wind tower in addition to the blade length plus 20 feet - are proposed when wind towers are proposed in the vicinity of private property.

A federal ruling that went against NorthWestern Energy on a proposed power line shouldn't change basic plans for the 430-mile line to export homegrown power to out-of-state markets, company officials say. But the recent order has piqued the attention of state regulators, who say they're wondering whether NorthWestern's Montana electric customers could end up paying for part of the line.

Molnar, R-Laurel, says the proposed 430-mile power line into southern Idaho is nothing more than a way to drain inexpensive Montana-produced power out of the state and into lucrative California markets. ...If PPL, which supplies about half the power for NorthWestern's customers, could move more power to California markets, it could demand a much higher price from Montanans, Molnar says.

Cascade County is considering creating setbacks to protect properties from wind development, including schools. But should schools be exempt from the rules? That's the question Cascade County commissioners must decide, Planning Director Brian Clifton said.